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UNIVERSITY
PARK, Pa. - Penn State field hockey head coach Char Morett-Curtiss took to the microphone
for Fall Sports Media Day Wednesday morning to preview the upcoming
season, which kicks off Friday on the road at Old Dominion.

Catch
up with Morett-Curtiss for a closer look at five takeaways from the media
session.

Preseason StrategiesTo
start the season off with a bang, Morett-Curtiss put in place a rigorous plan to
ensure and encourage improvement from last year, focusing on building fitness
levels and positive attitudes.

"We
had an outstanding preseason," Morett-Curtiss said. "I thought the players came
back ready to get going, they were fit. It's nice that they kind of had a
little bit of a head start on their conditioning factor."

Morett-Curtiss
also noted that a main focus this year is increasing speed, with a consistent,
high-tempo playing style as the result.

"We've
implemented a little bit of a different format," Morett-Curtiss said. "We
limited our time on the field, spent a lot of time in video, and just really
working on an aggressive style of play to get the season started."

While
planning preseason to focus on an assertive attack technique this season, Morett-Curtiss
also keyed in on expectations for a few key returners.

Juniors
Moira Putsch and Aurelia Meijer, both forwards, had impressive seasons
statistically at Penn State with goals and assists. For Morett-Curtiss, Putsch
and Meijer will be key in 2017.

"Moira
(Putsch) had a tremendous year, as did Aurelia last year, so we're really
looking for those two to get the ball on goal."

"They
did a nice job in the previous scrimmages putting the ball around the goal but
not putting the ball in the goal," Morett-Curtiss said. "Fortunately, they've
had some assists, but you know, we're going to work a little bit more this week
on honing our corner."

The
sunshine was also on Penn State's side, allowing for a smooth week of preseason
while Morett-Curtiss and the staff put together final preparations ahead of the
season opener.

"It
was a great week, the weather was very cooperative, so you always appreciate
that," Morett-Curtiss said. "We got a lot accomplished and I think it really
reflected in our two scrimmages [against James Madison and Syracuse]."

Facing the Challenges
With a successful season ending in with a disappointing loss in the first
rounds of the NCAA tournament last year, Morett-Curtiss and the team knew there's
still work to be done.

After
an 11-3 record and high hopes going into the tournament, Penn State left
feeling defeated. With those three losses against Princeton, Maryland, and
Northwestern, all whom Penn State will face again this fall, Morett-Curtiss
plans to use her strategies to prepare the team for whatever may come.

"We're
still working on our defense to play as a unit, and then we really want our
midfielders to be very aggressive getting in to the attacking line," Morett-Curtiss
said.

Progress PointsPenn
State recently traveled to Syracuse for a scrimmage, having already met James
Madison earlier in preseason. Despite showing some nerves and uncertainty with
the first scrimmage of the season, Morett-Curtiss had the team work with a sports
psychologist to regroup, boosting the squad for a much improved showing at Syracuse.

"I
think what happened is they all crashed at once and they weren't really there
to support their players on the field, so we didn't really have any options
when it came to playing the ball out," Morett-Curtiss said. "So big, big
improvements stretching the field, ball speed was something else we addressed,
so I think that they made those changes and it was very clear against
Syracuse."

Their
strong points moving foward? The team has many, as Morett-Curtiss is proud to
point out. "We always say build up our layers, get ahead of the ball, so we're
trying to put our fitness into the game, which we think could be a big
advantage for us."

Keeping the Big Picture
in MindAlthough
Penn State struggled with some challenging opponents and rough losses among
last year's highlights, Morett-Curtiss likes to emphasize the importance of
taking it one game at a time, and putting the past in the past.

"As
we say every year, it's 2017 now, just like last year it was 2016," Morett-Curtiss
said.

The
focus now remains on the start of the season this coming weekend, against Old
Dominion and Virginia.

Growing the GameWith
the Big Ten Network broadcasting Penn State field hockey, Morett-Curtiss and
the team appreciate the exposure it brings to both the school and the sport. From
a recruiting standpoint, the elevated exposure brings new, excited potential summer
campers , who are often enthusiastic about being amongst the Penn State student-athletes
they were able to watch on TV. Morett-Curtiss also emphasized the importance of field
hockey being on a national stage more frequently than just every four years for
the Olympics, all helping to further expand the growing sport.

*Note: Photos are numbered as they appear on the page from top to bottom

ByLisa Winters, Field Hockey
Student-AthleteUNIVERSITY
PARK, Pa. - Seven weeks ago, I made my way from Hershey, Pennsylvania to my
study abroad base city of Florence, Italy.
Since then, I visited 20 other Italian cities and towns, made incredible
new friends and became closer with old ones, and fell in love with the culture
that I got to experience and learn about through travel and class. I lived in an apartment in a residential part
of the city with 11 other girls from Penn State and UConn, and was lucky enough
to have an amazing roommate whom I had already become acquainted with through
the Sapphire Leadership Academic Program in the Smeal College of Business, Sam
Schmitt. We quickly became great friends
and started going everywhere together.

One
of our first, and still one of my favorite, experiences during our first
weekend in Florence was going to a Fiorentina soccer game against Lazio at the
Artemio Franchi stadium (Photo 1). Some
of my other favorite moments were seeing Michelangelo's David in Florence,
hiking between Vernazza and Monterosso in Cinque Terre, taking a boat into the
Blue Grotto in the Amalfi Coast, shopping my way to the Duomo in Milan (Photo
2), and taking a gondola ride through the canals of Venice (Photo 3 - feat. Sam
Schmitt).

I
spent all of my weekdays in Florence for class, but even the hours spent in my
Marketing and Food & Culture classes were far from an average
experience. Learning about branding
through visits to Italian companies was a much more engaging process than the
typical classroom. From the Carrara
marble quarry that provided the marble for the Pantheon in Rome and
Michelangelo's David to the Pitti Immagine men's fashion trade show, there were
so many different types of businesses that we got to not only hear about, but
see for ourselves. And while we were
constantly experiencing the food and culture of the country throughout our
daily lives, having a professor who could take us around the food markets and
to a beautiful sustainable garden was a great opportunity.

On
our last night in Florence, a group of my new friends and I climbed to the top
of Piazzale Michelangelo to watch the sun set over the city (Photo 4). My parents had come for the last week of
class, so after finals we were able to take off on one last trip to see all the
historic sites of Rome together (Photo 5).
So while I was sad to have the semester come to an end, I couldn't have
asked for a better finale. The past
weeks have been a truly memorable adventure, and I look forward to any
opportunity to continue exploring in the future.

HARRISBURG, Pa. - Penn State
hit the state capitol today for an afternoon of recognition, celebrating Nittany
Lion conference champion student-athletes and head coaches following a
record-setting 2016-17 season both in competition and in the classroom.

Joined by select head coaches
and staff members as well as student-athletes, the group toured through the
Pennsylvania House and Senate, stopping in for lunch with Sen. Jake Corman in
his office. Penn State then made its way to the floor of the Pennsylvania Senate
before remarks from Corman, welcoming the group to the state's capitol
following a few early proceedings.

Penn State then made its way
to the floor of the Pennsylvania House, which holds all 203 members, including Pennsylvania's
Rep. Mike Hanna, Rep. Kerry Benninghoff, Rep. Rich Irvin and Rep. Scott Conklin,
who read a resolution to again welcome and congratulate the Nittany Lions on an
all-around successful season, one that drew a standing ovation from the members
on the floor.

"I want to congratulate the
teams for not only what they do on the field but what they do in the community,
the outreach they give, the coaches who oversee them," Conklin said.

Nittany Lion director of
athletics Sandy Barbour only echoed the all-around success in her remarks in
the main rotunda later in the afternoon, noting that the individuals
surrounding her representing a combined 2016-17 total of nine conference
titles, among a few other crowns, are only one part of the story.

Penn State was recently
slated fourth in the first spring update of the Learfield Directors' Cup
standings following a year that saw seven Nittany Lion squads earn Big Ten
Championships or tournament titles in seven sports, the most of any league
institution and the third-highest total in school history.

As head coach Cael Sanderson brought
instantaneous cheers from the floor of the Pennsylvania house upon his
introduction, the room was reminded of Nittany Lion wrestling team's stunning second
consecutive NCAA Wrestling Championship, marking its sixth in the last seven
years, with five individuals earning NCAA titles along the way.

As Barbour pointed out
though, the impact of the Blue and White extends much further than excellence
in competition.

Nearly a month ago, a school
record 114 Penn State student-athletes graduated, bringing the 2016-17 total to
142, with more students on track to cross the stage in August. Penn State also
revealed its 89 percent NCAA Graduation Success Rate this year, which stands
just one point below its all-time program mark.

"Penn State student-athletes,
not unlike their student colleagues and their servant hearts, have dedicated
themselves to service," Barbour said. "Our student-athletes served over 6,200
hours of community engagement this last year. This comprehensive excellence is
embraced by our Penn State and Pennsylvania community. It's truly Penn State's
point of difference. It has historically motivated a state and a community,
connected passionately to each and every one of our programs and each and every
one of our student-athletes who wear the Blue and White."

Representative of just a
small piece of a variety of community engagement close to Penn State student-athletes
is THON, a beloved annual event that encompasses the entire university and Happy
Valley community.

Led by the efforts of the
Penn State Student Athlete Advisory Board, SAAB raised $59,679.49 for THON in 2017, which ranked
third among the 400-plus general organizations represented. Surging past a
fundraising goal of $50,000, the 2017 figure is SAAB's second-largest total in
the history of the organization, adding to a career total of $680,000, all for
THON and the Four Diamonds Fund, with four Penn State student-athletes joining
the 703 dancers on the floor this year.

Among those
dancers this year was women's soccer's Megan Schafer, a Big Ten Champion from
Langhorne, who joined the group today for her second trip to state capitol, but
first as a Nittany Lion.

"A couple
of years ago I got recognized for winning a state championship, so I think it's
pretty cool coming back at the collegiate level to get recognized for our hard
work all season," Schafer said. "I think it's really cool everything that people
put together just to recognize us today."

Prior to
Penn State, Schafer scored the overtime game-winner to lead Neshaminy high
school (also the alma mater of Penn State head football coach James Franklin)
to a Pennsylvania state title.

The entire group
of Nittany Lion coaches and student-athletes were treated to a personal meeting
with Gov. Tom Wolf, who stopped by the steps of the main rotunda to greet the
champions before heading back to Happy Valley.

UNIVERSITY
PARK, Pa. - Four years ago, as a freshman, Carly Celkos joined her field hockey team
on stage at Penn State's 46-hour dance marathon, THON, to dance in the annual
pep rally. As she looked out over the floor seeing the hundreds of dancers who
chose to stand for the entire weekend, Celkos knew that is where she wanted to
be before she graduated.

"In my
freshman year, all the freshmen wore crazy outfits and I was in a banana suit,"
Celkos said. "We split into grades and did like a 30 second clip and danced and
I did the jerk. It was just a lot of fun. Then I started doing committees my
sophomore, junior and senior year and I knew I wanted to dance my senior year
to come full circle."

Now, as a
senior, Celkos will be dancing in THON 2017, as a Student-Athlete Advisory
Board (SAAB) representative from the field hockey team. SAAB selects student-athletes
each year from various programs to dance in THON based on the athlete's
participation in fundraising for the event. Celkos is one of four athletes who
will be representing SAAB throughout THON weekend.

"I am so proud
and thankful," Celkos said. "The field hockey alumni have been great and they
have helped me raise so much money for THON. It definitely makes me proud to be
a Penn Stater. I get to represent athletics and Penn State for all the kids, so
it's really great."

SAAB is
paired with two THON families. Each athletic team shares its time with the two
families, but Celkos and the field hockey team spend a lot more time with one
family than any other athletic team on campus.

The trainer
for the field hockey team is Renee Messina. Messina's daughter, Isabella, had
pediatric cancer. Growing up with a mom who was constantly with the Penn State
field hockey team, Isabella has a close relationship with the field hockey team.
Celkos said she will be using Isabella as her main motivation throughout THON
weekend.

Isabella
will be in attendance at THON between her field hockey games at a local
tournament. Celkos said when those familiar faces are with her, the weekend
will be much easier.

"I was
thinking there's definitely been times in games when you mentally think you
can't do it anymore, but you have another five minutes and you just have to,"
Celkos said. "I definitely will hit those moments during THON where I am super
tired, but I'll just have to get over the hump and cruise through."

To help her
during these tough moments, Celkos has a list of close family and friends who
will be able to come visit her on the floor to give her that extra motivation
to stay on her feet. Some of her pass list members include her parents, some
teammates and her roommates. Celkos said that her parents have been the biggest
help in preparation for THON and some of her family members have been preparing
packages she will receive during the event.

Other than
seeing her family, friends and THON families, Celkos is looking forward to
experiencing her two favorite THON events as a dancer on the floor.

"I am
definitely biased. I love the pep rally," Celkos said. "I am really excited to
watch it. I am not going to dance with my team this year, but I am going to go
up after to get a picture with them. I know all the athletes so that will be so
much fun. Also, the final four hours are always amazing."

Celkos
found out that she would be dancing in THON this year on January 18. Since
then, the senior has been preparing physically as if she were training for the
field hockey season. Celkos has also worked on getting as much sleep as
possible and avoiding all colds and stomach bugs that have been spreading on
campus. Her biggest preparation has been eliminating coffee from her diet and
drinking a lot of water to be ready to stand, without sleep, for 46 straight
hours.

After years
of fundraising, participating in committees and now dancing, Celkos encourages
every Penn State student to get involved with THON.

"It's definitely a great community outreach that
reaches so many people," Celkos said. "Especially for athletes, we are really
on a time constraint, but whatever time you can give to other things do it.
THON has helped me have a more well-rounded experience at Penn State. Certain
kids look up to certain athletic teams, so it's definitely great when they see
us giving back too."

In a full for the kids effort, the annual event
benefits THON, Penn State's Interfraternity Council/Panhellenic Dance Marathon
to support pediatric cancer.

Featuring musical lip syncing acts from 11
different Penn State Athletics programs, months worth of planning and
preparation finally came together in an energetic evening for a tremendous
cause.

"I think it just bring out more of the sense of
community that we really already have in athletics," track and field sophomore
and lead event coordinator Tess Kearns said. "We're so strong all together but
to be able to something for THON and see the impact that it's making every year
- if we could just raise that number even a little bit on final reveal, that
would be all the difference."

From lip sync covers ranging from Justin Beiber
mixes to Beyoncé, Sia and School of Rock, the event, which was open to all to
attend, brought laughs throughout the night with guest judges featuring
director of student-athlete welfare and development Liz Johnson, director of
Penn State's John Curley Center for Sports Journalism, John Affleck and Penn
State Blue Band drum major Jimmy Frisbie.

Penn State women's volleyball highlighted early
with their Justin Beiber mix, followed up with women's soccer's rendition of
Sia's "Chandelier" midway through the program.

"SAAB THON is my favorite thing in the world,"
said SAAB THON chair Angela Widlacki, a member of the Nittany Lion women's
soccer team. "Being able to come out here and see this huge crowd, it means so
much to us and I know it meant a lot to our family the Messina's."

Men's hockey and defending SAAB lip sync battle
champion wrestling closed out the evening lip syncing to a pair of movie tunes
featuring "Zach's song" from School of Rock and "Breaking Free" from High
School Musical.

With the final scores tallied, the panel of
judges voted Penn State women's soccer duo of Widlacki and Liisi Vink-Lainas in
the top spot this year to earn the golden microphone. Men's hockey finished
second, while wrestling claimed the third-place finish.

UNIVERSITY
PARK, Pa. - Penn State's Jenny Rizzo said last week that it is both good and bad to face
a familiar face in the NCAA Tournament. It is good because the team knows what
to expect, but bad because it is hard to beat a good team twice.

On Saturday
at the Penn State Field Hockey Complex, the Nittany Lions proved how difficult
it truly is to defeat a top 10 team twice in a 2-1 loss to the Princeton
Tigers.

"I think
they definitely came out stronger than the last time we played them," Rizzo
said. "I think their defense was phenomenal today. They read our corners a
little bit more than they did the first time, so I think they did a good job of
scouting us."

The Nittany
Lions, who ranked first in the Big Ten and fourth in the NCAA standings for
goals scored per game (4.05) were shut down in the first half by the Tigers' defense.
None of Penn State's five shots in the first half were the quality looks at the
cage that the offense had been used to getting all season.

"Princeton's
defense was the best defense we have seen all year," Penn State head coach Char
Morett-Curtiss said. "We have been preaching to our kids all year about being
low and [Princeton] just did a phenomenal job of taking away lanes that we
wanted to attack. I thought Princeton played a great defensive game today. We
couldn't get into the circle and draw the corners to get the quality shots that
we wanted to get."

Princeton broke
the 0-0 tie 10 minutes into the second half. Cat Caro sent a ball into the
circle just ahead of Ryan McCarthy. McCarthy reached her stick in front of her
to get the ball and started to fall to the ground. As she was falling, Rizzo
got low to protect the cage, but McCarthy was able to get some air under her
shot sending the ball into the top left corner of the cage.

The Tigers
(11-7) tacked on another goal by Caro on a penalty corner with just 10 minutes
remaining in the game.

The Nittany
Lions (17-3) were finally able to get on the board with a little more than
three minutes left in the second half when Moira Putsch assisted Aurelia Meijer
on her 11th goal of the season.

Despite a
late scramble by the Penn State offense, the Nittany Lions ended their season,
losing the first round of the NCAA Tournament.

"In the NCAA
Tournament, anything can happen," Morett-Curtiss said. "We sort of had a slow
start. We had the right intentions, but we didn't give a good pass or we didn't
receive the ball well. We had the right ideas. I just feel like we should have
come out even stronger in the second half. It just took us too long to get the
momentum built up."

Penn State
will be losing its four seniors Carly Celkos, Kirsten Gochnauer, Emilee Ehret
and Brooke Birosik. In her postgame press conference, Birosik struggled to
control her emotions after playing her final game as a Nittany Lion.

"I am sorry
I am just upset right now," Birosik said. "I wouldn't have wanted to go to any
other school. I just love Penn State so much. It hasn't set in yet that that
was my last game."

Without its
four seniors, the Penn State field hockey team would not have had one of its
most successful seasons in the program's history. The four seniors combined
contributed 14 goals, 19 assists and 47 points in the 2016 season.

"This team
would not have had the success that we had this year if it wasn't for the four
seniors," Morett-Curtiss said. "When we started in the spring they were very
committed. They were passionate about how hard they wanted to work. They wanted
to turn this season around and get back to playing Penn State field hockey.
They were incredible leaders throughout the entire year including today. I
couldn't be more proud of the senior class. They really elevated this program
in a short time."

Although
Penn State struggled to accept this loss, the team already knows that they have
to look forward.

"I know
this team was capable of anything," Rizzo said. "We saw that last weekend with
the Big Ten Championship. But looking forward, we just need to have a strong
spring. We need to work on a lot of things I'm sure, but we just need to move
on from this and look forward to next season. We grew so much from last season
to this season, so I know we will just grow more for next season."

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. - Fall NCAA Tournament play in Happy
Valley has nearly arrived as two Nittany Lion squads are set to kick off
a pair of postseason events this weekend.

As both the
defending NCAA national champion women's soccer team and the the 2016 Big Ten Tournament
champion field hockey team gear up for postseason play, here's five things you
need to know before heading out to catch them in action this weekend.

Penn State Women's Soccer vs.
Bucknell - Friday, Nov. 11 - 6 p.m. (Jeffrey Field)1. With an 11-4-4
overall record, the Nittany Lions have qualified for their 22nd
consecutive NCAA Tournament, having also clinched a share of their 18th
Big Ten regular season title earlier this year.

2. Penn State holds a 15-3 advantage in first
round games heading into the matchup against the Bison, having won each of the last
seven consecutive opening round outings. Within the last 15 years, the Nittany
Lions have had the opportunity to host the first and second rounds of the NCAA
Tournament in the "pod" format a total of 10 times, accumulating an 18-2 record
within the 10-season span.

3. Penn State
is 46-19-2 all-time in NCAA Tournament outings, which includes a total of five
College Cup appearances along with the 2015 NCAA national title.

4. Drawing
Bucknell in the opening round, Penn State owns an 18-0-1 record in the all-time
series against the Bison. The Nittany Lions and the Bison have met twice in
NCAA Tournament play, with Penn State claiming wins in both outings at home in
Jeffrey Field.

5. Bucknell
is also a familiar program to Penn State head coach Erica Dambach, who started
her coaching path out of college as a graduate assistant on the Bison staff in
1997.

1. The Nittany
Lions captured their seventh Big Ten Tournament title last week, taking down
Maryland, 2-1 to secure the crown. Penn State earned the No. 4 seed in the NCAA
Tournament, marking the first time since 2014 that the Nittany Lions will
compete in the postseason event.

2. The
Nittany Lions have competed in 31 NCAA Tournament events in program history,
which is tied with Old Dominion for second all-time.

3. Penn
State is set to welcome its NCAA Tournament first round opponent to the Field
Hockey Complete for the first time since 2012. The Nittany Lions drew Princeton
as their opening round opponent, having already defeated the Tigers, 4-2 during
the regular season.

4. Both
Penn State and Princeton most recently met in first round of the 2013 NCAA
Tournament where the Tigers earned a 5-4 win to advance to the quarterfinals.

5. Should
the Nittany Lions defeat Princeton, Penn State would host the winner of the
Michigan/Virginia matchup Sunday, Nov. 13 at 2 p.m. in the Field Hockey Complex.
Penn State has also already topped both the Wolverines and the Cavaliers during
the 2016 regular season, defeating Michigan once again in the semifinals of the
Big Ten Tournament.

Catch up
with Penn State head coach Char Morett-Curtiss ahead of the opening round.

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. - The Penn State field hockey team's
dinner reservations at The Tavern restaurant on Friday can only mean one thing -
the NCAA tournament is right around the corner.

The only
time the Nittany Lions have organized dinners is when they qualify for the NCAA
Tournament and they always go to The Tavern in downtown State College.

"It's an
NCAA tradition," Penn State head coach Char Morett-Curtiss said. "Even if we
had an away game, we'd be having dinner at The Tavern before we left. We have
been doing it forever. I am really good friends with the owner. He is a big
supporter of the team and really pays attention to us."

The team
will reunite at the Penn Stater the following morning for a team breakfast to
make sure everyone is fueled up for Saturday afternoon's game. The Nittany
Lions only have to make a short drive to the Penn State Field Hockey Complex to
kick of NCAA Tournament play this year though.

"We broke
attendance records this year," goalkeeper Jenny Rizzo said. "It's crazy to
think about. The opportunity to host an NCAA game at home just gives us another
opportunity to get students and parents here. The fact that we know the turf
and know what to expect is a huge advantage. It is tough to go into someone's
home turf and beat them. I think it'll be a really cool opportunity."

"It's just huge
to be able to play at home," Morett-Curtiss said. "Knowing that we are number
one in attendance in the country is just great. We have such an energetic fan
base. All the other sports teams and athletes come and support us and it's just
great and adds that extra enthusiasm to the environment. Also, their parents
can come up and the girls sleep in their own beds. They don't have to pack a
bag or get on a bus. It just keeps the playoff season short and feels like a
regular season game."

Although it
may seem like a regular season home game, the Nittany Lions all know how
important Saturday's game is going to be. With the loss in the second round of
the Big Ten Tournament last year, Penn State was unable to qualify for the NCAA
Tournament leaving the freshmen and sophomore classes with no experience in
this weekend's upcoming tournament. The team will be relying heavily on its
seniors and their experience to prepare them for the big stage.

"It
definitely adds pressure when we are the most experienced," senior Emilee Ehret
said. "Especially when the season is on the line for each of these games. It
also adds pressure to our senior class, but I think we are ready for the
challenge. We are really excited. The [seniors] haven't stopped smiling since wearing
the Big Ten Champions shirt and hat."

The senior
class is also battling the reality of their field hockey careers coming to an
end. As much as Ehret wants to solely focus on the games at hand, she cannot
help but think that her time left playing field hockey is nearing completion.

"I think just
more is on the line for us," Ehret said. "My field hockey career is on the
line. I won't be in a collegiate game ever again if we lost. I just want to
play as many games as possible. There's only two weeks left. These games aren't
that long. We just want to make sure every minute counts and that we are
putting every ounce of energy into every game."

It is hard
to leave a sport that a player has dedicated so much time to since being a
little kid, but leaving a team with so much success makes saying goodbye so
much harder.

"It's
honestly unreal how successful we have been," Ehret said. "It makes [the
seniors] so happy how great this year was. We've had so many challenges the
past three years and to end on such a high note is just the greatest feeling
for all of us and we are super stoked to have this opportunity to do well in
the NCAA Tournament."

"I think
what it is about this team is everyone respects the role they play on the team,
everyone respects the leadership and then you just have the juniors, that's a
good class," Morett-Curtiss said. "Everyone works so hard at practice. If we
put the starting lineup against our second team, it's competitive. The Indiana
coach said to me, 'You have the luxury of having that every day at practice.'"

After
winning the Big Ten Tournament last weekend, the first thing the Nittany Lions
wanted to know was who they were playing in the first round of the NCAA
Tournament. The team gathered around to wait for its first round draw to find
that they will be playing a team they had faced earlier this season, Princeton.

"It's good
and bad that we have played them before," Rizzo said. "It's nice to know them
but it's also hard to beat a team twice. I think we are just excited because
both of the teams know that their seasons are on the line, so it'll be an
exciting game."

"I like our
bracket because we are familiar with every team," Morett-Curtiss said. "We get
tape on every team, but when you already had a chance to play the team, you
understand their tendencies. So I think we can look at things that they do
routinely throughout the game. They have the same advantage against us, but we
faced them at home before. We know what we have to tweak to be successful."

Morett-Curtiss
does not want this game to be treated any differently from any other regular
season game.

"We just
try to keep things consistent and not make it bigger than what it is,"
Morett-Curtiss said. "There will be some nerves and there was some this past
weekend. I think being at home for this takes the nerves a little more out of
the picture. When we go into the locker room before games they are always
singing, dancing and laughing. I think that plays into their success. They take
the fun they have there and take it to the field."

Penn State
will host Princeton in the first round of the NCAA Tournament Saturday at 11:30
a.m. at the Penn State Field Hockey Complex.

UNIVERSITY
PARK, Pa. - With Aurelia Meijer being from the Netherlands, the Penn State
sophomore very rarely has her family in the stands.

Once each year, one of Meijer's parents flies nine hours to the United States to
watch their daughter compete. A few weeks ago, Meijer's mom was preparing to
make her trek to New Jersey to watch Penn State take on Rutgers.

"My mom was
mad because when my dad came last year I had a hat trick and she told me I had
to do it for her too," Meijer said.

In 2015,
Meijer's father was in the stands in University Park as the Nittany Lions
played the Iowa Hawkeyes. With the added pressure of her father watching her
compete in the United States for the first time, Meijer did what is rarely done,
scoring three goals in one game.

"He was so
excited. I remember it was on BTN and even he was on the television," Meijer
said. "In the Netherlands we don't have that. Only the national team gets
attention. The way we get attention here is so insane. When I made that
everyone was so pumped up. [My dad] teared up. He was so proud."

A year
later, when it was Meijer's mom's turn to come watch her play, she wanted
nothing but the same outcome.

She
succeeded.

"I really
didn't do it because of them, but now they are even," Meijer said. "It was just
a coincidence. My team tells me to get my parents here so I will score more. I
would love to do it again."

Meijer is
from a small town in the Netherlands called Hattem. The field hockey field she
played on growing up was only a one-minute walk from her house.

"I
practiced there three times a week," Meijer said. "My whole family played
there. All the sports complexes were right beside me. It's a really little town,
everyone knew each other. It's little and cute compared to cities here."

With her
dad as her field hockey coach since she began playing at age six, Meijer said
she had no option to focus on any other sport than field hockey.

"My dad is
really good at field hockey and so is my grandpa," Meijer said. "He played in
the national Dutch game. He always would take me on Sunday's and I hated it. He
would teach me over and over again to be good. Now I am grateful, but then I
hated it. He always wanted to go to the turf with me. Now we go for fun. I play
with my sister against my two brothers. We always do games together."

As she got
older, Meijer knew that she wanted to come to the United States to continue
playing field hockey and get a degree in the country that she always heard was
so great and had so many opportunities.

She used a
recruiting service to talk to field hockey coaches throughout the country and
met them via Skype to find the perfect match for her future home. When Meijer
Skyped with Penn State head coach Char Morett-Curtiss, both knew that Meijer
would be a future Penn Stater.

"I loved
her," Morett-Curtiss said. "She was just so enthusiastic. She had this
enthusiastic, positive energy. When we would Skype with her, she would get on
the screen and just yell, 'Hey!' She's just so genuine. What you see is truly
what you get."

Meijer said
that it came down to either Penn State or Northwestern, but there was something
about the connection with Morett-Curtiss Meijer could not avoid. After her
first official visit to Happy Valley, there was no doubt left in her mind. This
was her new home.

Meijer
became the first international player to play on Penn State's field hockey
team. Although a historic moment in the program's history, this meant a lot of
new experiences for not just Meijer, but the entire team.

English was
not Meijer's first language. Although she was taught English in high school,
she only felt comfortable with reading and writing. Speaking was not something
she had practiced regularly. Meijer had difficulties figuring out what time to
show up for practices, what things to bring to games and other simple details
that came so easily to an English speaker.

"To be
honest, I was really homesick," Meijer said. "Everything is so different here.
I love it now, but at the beginning I was shocked by everything. Not just food,
not language, but just how people act. People didn't always understand me and I
didn't always understand them. There's little details that people here don't
understand about how we act. It was so different. Because I was the first
international player, I had no one to lean on. It was really good for me
because I learned so much."

Meijer said
it only took three months for her to feel completely fluent in her new language
because she had no way around it. She had to speak it in class, at practice and
with her friends.

To feel
more comfortable in such a foreign land, Meijer Skyped her family a lot and
looked forward to playing field hockey every day. The freshman at the time,
focusing on having fun every day until she finally felt a little bit at home at
Penn State.

After a few
months of explaining her hometown and culture to her new teammates, Meijer was
able to show her friends everything she was talking about first hand when the
team traveled to the Netherlands last spring.

"It was
amazing," Meijer said. "That weekend was one of the best weeks of my life. Most
of the girls had never been to Europe. They were excited to see the culture. They
saw my family. The social life is so different. It was cool for them to see
what I was used to. I could never explain it really well because it was so
different. They saw it with their own eyes it was such an amazing experience."

On the
first day of the trip, the team played on the little field beside Meijer's
house that was once her own.

"We lost
that game, but it really didn't matter," Meijer said. "It was so cool that it
was my field with my new friends. I can't explain it. It was awesome."

When she is
at Penn State, Meijer can be found enjoying waffles at the Waffle Shop or small
coffee shops downtown. Although Thanksgiving break is too short for the
sophomore to travel back home to see her family, Meijer will visit Philadelphia
to be with some of her teammates. Once she finishes her final exams, Meijer
will be back in the Netherlands for winter break.

But this year, there is one difference. Instead
of being homesick, Meijer will be excited to get back to her new home in Happy
Valley.

Check out Meijer recapping the Penn State field hockey victory over Maryland to clinch the Big Ten Tournament Championship title.